The scene of foreplay: theater, labor, and leisure in 1960s NewYork

Product Description The Scene of Foreplay: Theater, Labor, and Leisure in 1960s New York suggests "foreplay" as a theoretical framework for understanding a particular mode of performance production. That mode exists outside of predetermined structures of recognition in terms of professionalism, artistic achievement, and a logic of eventfulness. Foreplay denotes a peculiar way of working and inhabiting time in performance. It is recognized as emblematic of a constellation of artists in the 1960s New York scene, including Ellen Stewart, John Vaccaro, Ruby Lynn Reyner, Jackie Curtis, Andy Warhol, Tom Eyen, Jack Smith, and Penny Arcade. Matching an original approach to historical materials and theoretical reflection, Palladini addresses the peculiar forms of production, reproduction, and consumption developed in the 1960s as labors of love, creating for artists a condition of “preliminarity” toward professional work and also functioning as a counterforce within productive economy, as a prelude where value is not yet assigned to labor.The Scene of Foreplay proposes that such labors of love can be considered both as paradigmatic for contemporary forms of precarious labor and also resonating with echoes from marginal histories of the performing arts, in a nonlinear genealogy of queer resistance to ideas of capitalist productivity and professionalism. The book offers much for those interested in performance theory as well asin  the history of theater and performance arts in the 1960s.   Review "My encounter with and experience of the book’s first pages reflect my takeaway from the book in its entirety—a sometimes startling and refreshing collage-work of detailed close readings and performance critiques, meshed with wide-ranging theoretical analyses that are occasionally interrupted by the author’s self-reflections." —The Drama Review "Palladini develops truly fresh theorizations of the possible relations between labor, value, productivity, and capitalism, while presenting an extraordinarily rich and extensive set of materials on 1960s New York 'underground' performance. This work has the potential for broad impact beyond theater and performance studies; it is relevant to everyone engaged with cultural studies and critical theory, from queer and gender studies to critical human geography and other theoretically engaged humanistic social sciences. It will thus be a great resource for scholars within these fields, as well as for historians of New York City." —Miranda Joseph, author of Debt to Society: Accounting for Life Under Capitalism  About the Author Giulia Palladini is a researcher in performance studies based in Berlin. An Alexander von Humboldt fellow (2012-14), she currently teaches at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee.